About Us / History of Mint
Aaron Patzer created Mint as the antidote to current online financial management “solutions,” which require accounting knowledge and hours of maintenance. While those personal finance software packages put you to work, Mint works for you. It’s virtually effortless and accessible anywhere, anytime over the Web. As the first free, automatic and secure way for money management and save money online, Mint marries the ease of online financial services with the most powerful and useful capabilities of personal finance management software.
How Mint Started
One day in November 2005, while using Quicken to catch up on his personal budgeting, Aaron realized that he was in for an afternoon of tedious accounting-type work: poring over his statements, filling in gaps in entries, and categorizing dozens of purchases. While all he wanted to get to was a simple pie chart breaking down his monthly spending into its major categories.
And when, even after spending a couple of hours trying, Aaron couldn’t get that chart (and he holds masters degrees in computer science and engineering) he started to wonder why there wasn’t a better way to do all of this automatically. So instead of finishing his Quicken update that day, he began thinking about building the capabilities that would become Mint.
Breakthrough Technology
Aaron’s personal experience led him to create two breakthrough technologies which make Mint so useful, intuitive and unique:
- Patent–pending categorization technology that automatically identifies and organizes purchases from descriptions in the electronic records at banks and credit card companies.
- A proprietary search algorithm that finds savings opportunities unique to each user.
Mint’s technology does everything automatically in a way that other online banking applications and personal finance management software can’t. It provides useful information and smart, specific recommendations for saving or making more money based on each user’s individual purchase history.
After nearly two years of development, the public beta of Mint.com was launched on September, 2007. Because the product solves the long–standing problem of easy and free financial and personal budget management, Mint.com has caught the attention of major national media. The product has also won recognition and multiple awards from Business Week, Finovate, TechCrunch and Lifehacker. It was named one of the Top 25 Innovations of 2007, and named the highest rated Online Personal Finance service by PCWorld. Click here for more information on product reviews and awards. The company has put together an experienced executive and engineering team, and has attracted funding from top tier venture capital firms and angel investors.
Aaron Patzer, Founder and CEO
Aaron is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint the first free, automatic and secure way for money management and save money online. He designed Mint to meet his own needs and those of people like him who value the immediacy of the Web, simplicity and their free time. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University. He has ten patents filed or pending.
